Marc Bolan, the British superstar founder of the great UK pop and rock act, T.Rex, was killed on the early morning of September 16, 1977 when his girlfriend, backup singer Gloria Jones lost control of the purple Austin Mini 1275 GT at about 4am in the morning and hit a tree. Jones was unconscious but survived the accident, but Bolan suffered multiple serious injuries and was killed instantly in the crash.
Interestingly, the little Austin Mini 1275 GT cars were not equipped with seatbelts in most cases, and the front seats often had no locks on them, only allowing a passenger to go head first into the windshield during a crash in these little cars. Coupled with the small size, the little Austin Mini 1275 Gt cars were a perfect deathtrap in the event of a serious accident, probably only exceeded by motorcycles for risk potential.
Reportedly, Bolan likely slammed head first into the windshield and then was knocked clear into the back of the car by the crash, suffering substantial crash injuries to the front and back of the head both, neck and body.
If anything, the serious safety issues with the 1960's vintage Austin Mini cars prove the real value of basic modern safety devices such as seatbelts, locking seats, airbags and protective bumpers and crash zones. The accident might well have survivable if these basic safety devices had been installed in British cars of that era.
Permalink | Send To A Friend | Linking Blogs | Digg this! | FARK It!
Filed under:
Automobiles
Tags: Automobiles
Comments (2)
Interesting that you should... (Below threshold)1. Posted by deusa | July 10, 2009 5:06 PM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Interesting that you should post this. I was checking out the same article the other day when you post that car (I know nothing about). I had always thought he died in a ferrari or something, I don't know why. Ironic he was terrified to drive, but the girlfriend survived the accident. I also wondered what it would have been like if he had lived. Here's T Rex on Midnight Special http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uueO8BQGLDo and again with Elton John making his TV debut I think right around the time Daniel was released http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cANmUmGSlw
1. Posted by deusa | July 10, 2009 5:06 PM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on July 10, 2009 17:06
2. Posted by Paul Hooson | July 10, 2009 5:54 PM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Hello Deusa. Marc Bolan always had a strange, if not almost sexual, attraction to automobiles, yet I can find no evidence that he ever drove one. He did buy a Rolls Royce, which he brags about in his song "Children Of The Revolution", yet I can find no evidence that he ever drove it himself.
Strangely, T.Rex did sort of live on after Marc Bolan. Mickey Finn the bong player formed a new version of T.Rex called Mickey Finn's T.Rex, with a Marc Bolan sound-alike. However, the albums they issued sure lack the distinctive Marc Bolan guitar sound for one thing. And the group never wrote any new songs to play either, just new versions of old stuff like "Get It On", etc. A T.Rex cover band, T.Rextasy did a better job, and even wrote some new songs in the style of T.Rex to play.
Bolan's last album, DANDY IN THE UNDERWORLD was one of his most listenable by far. It had some great songs on it. Bolan strangely seemed to sort of encourage the new wave scene and punk scene on one hand, while his music seemed like traditional UK rock in the vein of The Beatles or Jimi Hendrix guitar work as some influences. At one point, Paul McCartney thought that T.Rex would be like the new Beatles. But that really never happened. But T.Rex was a darn good band, even if it was mostly all just musical genius Marc Bolan at work.
His disposable lyrics on songs, seemed sort of like a Bob Dylan in reverse. Dylan used words for what they meant, while Bolan used words for how they sounded. But regardless, the result was plenty of great top ten singles for the band and scads of great albums.
2. Posted by Paul Hooson | July 10, 2009 5:54 PM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on July 10, 2009 17:54